Running Back to Back Half Marathons in a Weekend

In the not to distant future I will be doing my first back to back half marathons to complete two states toward my 50 By 50 Challenge of completing a half marathon in all 50 states before I turn 50. When I say back to back, I am referring to doing a half marathon on Saturday followed by a second half marathon on Sunday.

For background information, I have done the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge and a Half twice now. For those that do not know, this is doing a half marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday. However, in training for these two races, I trained just to finish both events standing up, not running for a competitive time.

In researching the Internet for training plans and possibilities for such a feat, I was met with limited results. None of which were very helpful. Because of this, I attempted to come up with my own training plan. In doing so, I reached out to one of the top running coaches in the country for advice.

I reached out to Bart Yasso. I had the honor of meeting Bart at the Space Coast Half Marathon back in November. He told me that day (which I am sure he tells to everyone), to reach out to him if I ever had any running questions or issues to which I needed advice.

So, acting upon that offer, I sent Bart a tweet on Twitter asking for advice. I was shocked that within an hour I received a reply. The Twitter conversation is below. In short, Bart suggested that I keep my normal training plan as it has always been and just add a couple of back to back training events about a month to six weeks out to simulate the race weekend.

@davidgeddings I would simulate race weekend in training. Do 2 long runs Sat & Sun each about 10 to 11 miles. Mon thru Fri keep the same.

When I was beginning to put this training plan together, I was envisioning many a weekend of back to back training runs, and was beginning to get burnt out just thinking about it, and thinking about the past training I did for the Goofy Challenge events. When he said to just do a few back to back training runs, my eyes were opened, and I felt energized!

So, without further adieu, here is how I put my training plan together. This plan started January 1st. This makes this training plan about 18 weeks in total. Now just for some background, so you do not have to look back at all my Training B-Logs, I do about four training runs a week. On Mondays, I normally do a 5 mile run, Wednesdays I do a 4 mile run, specialty run (speed work, tempo, hills rotation) on Thursday or Friday, followed by my long run on Saturdays. This will all remain the same through the training plan.

As for my weekend long runs, this will be the schedule. Since we are now in week 9, I will retro the schedule below to indicate what I have done to this point.

Week

Sat

Sun

01

8 Miles

Off

02

9 Miles

Off

03

10 Miles

Off

04

11 Miles

Off

05

12 Miles

Off

06

13 Miles

Off

07

8 Miles

Off

08

8 Miles

Off

09

9 Miles

Off

10

9 Miles

Off

11

10 Miles

Off

12

10 Miles

10 Miles

13

8 Miles

Off

14

11 Miles

11 Miles

15

8 Miles – HMPW

Off

16

12 Miles

12 Miles

17

8 Miles

Off

18

Half Marathon #1

Half Marathon #2

Based on Bart’s recommendations, I will do back to back weekend runs in weeks 12, 14, & 16 of 10-12 miles. Also, in week 15, I reference HMPW. This represented “Half Marathon Pace Wanted”. Then intent here is that you know when you want to finish your half marathon(s) and what pace you need to run. This will be a trial run at that pace for eight miles.

So that is my plan. You will obviously have to adjust it to your skill & training levels. My baseline for long weekend runs is eight miles. Once you set your baseline, you can more readily build your own schedule.

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5 comments on “Running Back to Back Half Marathons in a Weekend”

This is really similar to how people train for ultras. Obviously training for an ultra, most people can’t safely run the distance in training, so they break it up into two back-to-back long runs.

I think increasing distance will do nothing but good things for you, if you do it carefully to avoid fatigue and injury (sometimes you really have to slow the easy days down a lot!). The more you run on back-to-back days, the more you learn how to run on tired legs. Obviously that Sunday your legs will be tired after the Saturday half!

Looks like a solid training schedule. Great way to knock two states out quickly! I’m also doing the 50 states challenge. But don’t think I’m ready for back-to-back half marathons yet. If you haven’t done Kentucky and West Virginia yet, I hear the Hatfield-McCoy is a cool one – the first 13.1 miles is in Kentucky, and the second 13.1 is in West Virginia. Good luck on your races!

Hey my wife and I are doing the same thing with regards to two half in a weekend, happens to be the same weekend in May. I like your plan we have been doing something very similar. I think we may be doing to many back to back long runs. I think we might change to every other weekend instead of every weekend for fear of tired legs. Great plan and good luck!

MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.